


When the Day Became the Night

by 17fingertips



Series: The Renaissance Series [2]
Category: Rey/Ben Solo - Fandom, Rey/Kylo Ren - Fandom, Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VIII
Genre: Anger, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Minor Original Character(s), Romance, The Dark Side of the Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-23 07:58:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13185744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/17fingertips/pseuds/17fingertips
Summary: I DID NOT MEAN TO POST THIS! IT'S NOT FINISHED YET! PLEASE DO NOT READ!





	When the Day Became the Night

Ben stood alone in the throne room. He looked out the window at the cold and frozen planet below, grey swirling clouds blocking parts of it from view. It looked abandoned and forlorn, the dull colours of a sweeping storm were visable from above. The planet was called Clytar, and was home to thousands of people, despite the harsh and unforgiving climate.

Rey was down there now, walking the streets - if that's what they were called - and searching. She was searching for an aprentice, a padawan, whom she could train to be a Jedi. They had agreed to train one aprentice each, so as to keep the Jedi Order alive, but not in the way it used to be.

They had originally come to Clytar to pay homage to its king. They had forged an agreement with the council that allowed for the existing governments of individual planets to remain intact, and for The Protectors - Rey and Ben- to preside over the governments. The king of Clytar willingly signed the agreement, but Rey had not let them leave. She said she senced a energy in the force, and so she set to the streets in search of this presence. Ben had to admit, he could feel it to, although he didn't believe that it was coming from the lonely planet below them.

Ben's thoughts were interrupted buy someone, a young woman, who had entered the Throne Room.  
The woman was tall and thin, and wore a New Order jumpsuit, a mechanic Ben guessed, judging by the oil stains and grease that coverd her body. The woman had light hair which she tied up in a bun, and her delicate nose was crooked, as if she had recently broken it.

"Lord Protector," the woman said with a bow of her head. "I have a concern - a problem - which has failed to be noticed. I wouldn't come to you, but no one I have brought the issue to has taken any notice." The woman did not look Ben in the eyes, rather looked every where but at him. Her eyes darted around the blue marble Throne Room, and Ben got the feeling she had never been in a room as fine and expensive before.

"Go on." Ben said, promoting her to continue. "What is thie problem?"

"Well," the woman began, all preoccupation vanishing. "For the past there months, since your rule began really - no insult to you or the Lady Protector - people have been turning up dead." Ben looked quizzically at her, asking for more context.

"They all turn up dead in ordinary places - ordinary placed to be that is, not to die - in the hall, at their work station, normal places. But the cause of death is allways the same...well the same in the way that there isn't one. There all perfectly healthy, except that they're not breathing."

Confusion mixed with something else that he couldn't name brewed in Ben's head, but his face was a mask, letting none of it show.

"What's your name?" Ben asked. He felt there was something she wasn't telling him.

"Athena Podici." She replied with a small smile.

"Athena, who did you tell about this before me?"

"I told the Head Mechanic first, but he did nothing, so I went to the Cheif of Transportation. He told me he'd look into it, but that was weeks ago and I've heard nothing."

"But you've don't nothing since then untill today. Why? What changed? What made it important enough to bring it to me?"

At this the woman looked down as her feet, as if gathering herself. When she returned he gaze to Ben her eyes were glassy, as if she was holding back tears.

"Two days ago my brother-" her voice caught slightly in her throat. "My brother was -was found dead." Athena looked down at her feet again as a wave of understanding flooded over Ben. His first instinct was to smirk and put up that wall that separated him from all human emotion. The one that kept him safe from feeling pity or simpathy. The one that kept him seperate from his empathy. But he held it back. He pushed it away and allowed himself to feel this woman's sorrow. And because he had kept those feelings locked away for so long, it hurt even more than it should.

Since he met Rey, since they began their rule together, he had been forced to feel more than he was used to. Some of it was voluntary, like the empathy he felt now. He worked- with Rey's help- to undo the emotional damage that he had recived from snoak and luke. But some of it was involuntary, like that pang he felt in his chest whenever Rey entered the room. That had happened on its own, which made it all the more terrifying. Rey told him that the feelings which he tried to hold off were the ones he needed to harness, she said anger and rage would only hold him back. So he tried to hold _it_ back. Any anger he felt. Something told him that wasn't good either, but Rey seemed to have it under control, and he trusted Rey. 

Ben turned his attention back to the woman in front of him, silent tears now sliding down her grease stained skin. He felt her loss in a strange way, distant, yet still very real.

"I-" He wanted to say 'I promice' but couldn't bring himself to do it, so he settled for "I will find out who did this. And as for your brother, there is nothing I can do except provide a propper burial, on which ever planet you chose. Athena knoded her head in thanks and left the throne room, the oak wood doors closing silently behind her. It was not long ago that Ben had had those doors commissioned, along with the rest of the throne room and Rey's sleeping quarters. Snoak's taste in interior design was acidic and harsh, and Rey was much more suited to the natural elegance that the ship now boasted. The Throne Room was now made of mist blue marble, and two silver thrones ornately decorated with leaves and vines sat on the raised area where Snoak's throne used to be. The marble gave the room an otherworldly feel, one of gentle calm. Taking in the tranquility of the room, Ben returned to his spot by the window, one strong hand against the glass as he waited for Rey's return. 

He did not have to wait long before the oak doors opened again, but it was not Rey who entered through them. It was a short crooked man who wore the olive green of the New Order. The man aproached Ben without adressing him or announcing his busness. The man's face looked disjointed, as though pieces of seperate bodies had been molded together to form it. His plastered on smile didn't seem to fit his face. His hair was brown and slicked back, an occasional strand of hair falling away from the rest. 

Ben did not find this man or his behaviour rude, like a typical high born would, although he admitted to himself that he would like to know this man's reason for visiting. The man neared him with a weird sliding gate, and it wasn't untill Ben spoke that the man stoped his aproach.

" What brings you to me in this odd manner, without annunciation?" The man's disjointed smile spread across his crooked face with an odd twitch, and the voice that issued from between those crooked lips was slick with distaste. 

"The girl. The girl brings me here. She is the issue. She is the reason I come." The man didn't give Ben a formal stress, and something that bordered on a sneer appeared on the man's face. Ben had only a slight idea of whom the man was referring. But he doubted he was correct. That could not be what he meant. 

"She weakens you. She takes what should be yours and uses it herself. You are being played like a chess piece. You are not your own man, although you never really were. The girl is stronger than I thought, perhaps even stronger than Skywalker. It takes a lot of strength to overpower the mighty Kylo Ren, although I'm beginning to doubt that as well. I expected more coming from such strong parents. Especially your father. Remember him? The one you killed?" 

With these words a hot rage flared up inside Ben. One stronger that he had felt in weeks. He seethed in his own skin, hating the man in front of him, yet using every ounce of his concentration to keep his anger at bay. There was something unnerving about this man. Something that Ben recognized, although he couldn't name what. 

" You used to be such a force to be reckoned with. People respected you. People FEARED you. You ruled people with your anger. But now you are a joke. You are disgraced by a soft hearted woman who clouds your judgement with her every breath. You have abandoned what you stood for and now you are just what's left of that man. Have you forgotten what you were? Kylo Ren?" These words fed the fire inside him. He had expressly asked, no he had ORDERED, not to be addressed by that name any more. Ben was not sure if he could hold himself in for much longer. The pressure of his anger building up like a carbonated drink. 

" Yes. That's it. Feel the anger. Remember what it's like? To rule with anger? You feel it. Now let it rule. Let it have you. And use it. Use it to do what you should have done before. Kill the girl. Strike her down. Let her body fall and the the First Order be reborn." With those words Ben was broken. The wall he put up crumbled to dust in the confines of his head, the tongues of anger licking at the inside of his skull. The mere suggestion of killing that woman was enough to make him vile. This man had overstepped his boundaries, and Ben was going to give him he'll to pay. 

"Are you declaring your allegiance to Snoak and and First Order?" Ben's voice was heavy with an anger he had not let show in a while. But he spoke softly, the danger in his voice cutting any false truths out of the air.

"In ways you don't even know," The man responded, his grotesque smile returning to his face. " and it will return. Weather lead by you or by someone more adequate, the First Order will return. The pitiful girl you seem to hold so deer will die, one way or another, however if it is by your hand, your followers will return to you, and you may return to your former power." The anger that coursed through his body finally became too much to bear, the rage that pushed its way through his veins finally took control of his brain and flicked the switch that let it all fall. He reached out his hand, and using the force, choked the man, cutting off the air to his lungs. He watched the mans face grow red and his eyes begin to bulge in their sockets. Ben raised his hand and the man levitated off the ground. Ben raised him higher and higher into the air, watch the man's body thrash and his muscled convulse from the lack of oxygen. It had been so long since he had held this much power over someone. He felt the adrenaline pulse through his veins, and he savoured the rush it gave him. The glorious sensation of owing everything. 

Ben released his force hold on the man and let his body fall to the floor, the sound of his body hitting the floor satisfying to his ears. The man lay motionless for a minute, breathing raggedly, allowing the oxygen to enter his blood once again. When he raised his head to look at Ben, he was met with a dark, satisfied smirk.

"I am so much stronger than you. I can make you scream. I have the power to hurt you so bad you wish you were dead. And if you say another word about Rey, I will hurt you ways you didn't know possible." Ben's voice was steely and hard, his eyes threatening, his face contorted in pure rage towards this stranger. His hands shook with his anger. He felt the rush of power, but also the drain of using the force after leaving it untouched for so long. 

"The girl belongs in hell. Her name is a joke to all who respected you. You disgrace yourself and the entire First Order."

"The First Order is dead." Ben spat before harnessing the force once more. He focused his attention on the man on his knees in front of him, on the bones inside his body. He focused the force in his body and began to push the man's bones apart. The man shrieked in pain as his bones began to separate from each other, his joints popping and cracking, blood beginning to trickle from his nose and ears. Hie eyes appeared to be disappearing into his skull, witch grew misshapen. His cries turned echoed around the room, reverberating off the walls and making the noise so much louder. Ben stopped the torture, allowing the man's bones to sink back into place. The man's breathing was ragged, but his eyes flashed with anger, not fear. But there was triumph in hid eyes as well. 

"Yes, that's it, Kylo Ren. Grandson of Darth Vader, and leader of the First Order. Don't you see? Don't you see what you are? You can't pretend. You can't hide from yourself. It's only a matter of time before you come back to play. Why not skip right to the end, kill me now, and return to what you were meant to be. Kylo Ren." Ben's self control slipped out of his reach. He didn't want to be this person, the one who gets angry, the one who kills. But he couldn't hold back. There was nothing to stop him now. It was too late. He reached out to the force, and then pushed it in on the man, compressing his bones to breaking point. 

" I. Am. Not. Kylo. Ren." he roared, punctuating each word with the snapping of a bone. He increased the pressure, slowly breaking every bone in the mans body. His screams became blood curdling, cutting through the air and piercing Ben's ears. Then he stopped, the man involuntarily shaking from pain. Ben looked down at what he had done. The man lay at his feet, his body distorted and broken, all colour gone from his skin. Ben's stomach flipped inside him. Nausea hit him like a tidal wave as he realised what he had done. He had done exactly what the man had wanted. He had let his anger take control. He had broken his resolve. Exactly what he had been working against for months past. he was sick with himself. This was not who he wanted to be. He wanted to be a loving ruler, with his beautiful Rey at his side. What had he become? 

At that moment, when Ben thought things could not get worse, Rey entered the room. She took in the scene, and it only took seconds for her to comprehend what was happening. Her face wore a look that made Ben hurt even more, made Ben even more sick of himself. She wore a look of disappointment. One of betrayal. Her eyes closed themselves off from him, he could read nothing, only cold dark eyes. Her mouth twitched, as if she was about to say something, but she didn't. Not to him. She raised her voice to call to the guards, but it quivered slightly, as if she were holding something back.

"Guards! " Two armed men ran into the room. "Take this man away." she pointed to the guards gingerly picked up the man and carried him away, wipers of pain issuing from his mouth. Then Rey rounded on Ben, the betrayal that she felt clearly displayed on her face. She had never been one for hiding what she felt, thought Ben, apprehensive of what would come next. For a long time there was silence. Rey stared at Ben with the empty eyes of disappointment, shaking her head slightly in disbelief. 

"I thought I could trust you." she said slowly, a grimace crossing her face. "I thought you had changed. You promised me you would be different. You promised me you would change." 

"Rey it was a mistake. I didn't mean to. He-he wanted me to. He provoked me. He was asking me to kill you. He wanted to make me angry-"

"You can't just force choke people just because they don't like me Ben!" Rey cried, exasperation mixed with anger in her voice. 

"It wasn't just that. He was calling me by my old name, he was trying to rial me up. I-" 

"But that doesn't give you reason to torture someone! Ben you told me you had changed. Why didn't you tell me you were still struggling? I could have helped you work past it. But that man was one of your subjects. One of your people. You have to be above that behaviour. You told me that you were. "

"It isn't that easy!" Ben roared loosing his cool for the second time. "Its not a switch I can turn on and off. I didn't mean to loose my control. I'm doing the best I can. You have to trust me."

Rey slowly shook her head and smiled sadly. "How can i be sure? How can I know."

"I'm doing the best I can! You're just going to have to trust me. It that so hard? Can you do that to me?" Ben yelled at her, hot anger pounding in his skull.

Rey was appalled, disbelief visible in his eyes. "I-would break Hell for you. But I have to know. I need to know that your on my side."

Now it was Ben's turn to be hurt. How could she not know? How could she not be sure that he was on he side. Was it not obvious? Her words cut into his hot rage like ice, defusing him and leaving him with nothing but pain. In his pain he resorted to words he did not mean. He regretted them the moment they fell from his lips. He spoke in a cold soft voice, his dark eyes hardening.

"Perhaps the man was right. Perhaps you are just using me."

Rey let out a small breath, then gritted her teeth. Despite the tears that began to roll down her he cheeks, she turned on her heel, chin raised, and wordlessly left the room.

*****

Rey slept alone that night. She stayed in her own room, something she had not done in weeks. Most nights she would sleep with Ben in his room. But not tonight. She couldn't face him tonight. Partly because she was hurt. Hurt from what he said. But also because she was ashamed of what she had said herself. She hadn't meant it. She knew Ben would do anything for her. She knew she meant everything to him. She knew he was on her side. But she had been so angry, so sickened by what she had seen, that she resorted to words she didn't mean. She was wrong for saying those things, and she knew it, but she couldn't face him, not tonight.

Rey's head was swimming, she could not sleep. She tossed in her crisp white sheets, trying to clear her mind. She wanted Ben with her. She wanted to curl up his his strong arms and forget that this had ever happened. But she knew she couldn't. She knew she had hurt him, hurt his pride and his heart. She had taken her trust from him, something he perhaps valued over anything else. She would have to apologise for what she said. But she wasn't ready. She herself was still hurt, and her own pride couldn't take the blow quite yet.

Rey got out of bed and softly walked across the cool floor. Her legs were bear and she wore nothing but one of Ben's tunics she had found in her drawer. She crossed the room and stopped in front of her mirror. Although it was too dark to see detail, Rey could see her silhouette in the mirror, saw the rise and fall of her chest. Then a shiver ran down her spine, a strange prickling sensation that lingered at the back of her neck. The hairs on the back of her arms stood on end, and she subconsciously curled her toes against the cold floor. She sensed something, a presence in the force. A presence that seemed unwelcome, filling her with a sense of foreboding .

Rey's heart began to beat frantically in her chest, trying break free of her rib cage. Her breath caught in her throat, and she turned herself around, waiting for something to reveal itself.


End file.
